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Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments (PS4) by jp (Apr 21st, 2024 at 00:26:13) |
This game is way more interesting than I initially gave it credit for (and I might even play all the cases, I'm that curious!)
There's a bunch of cases, you're Sherlock and you gather clues, investigate locations, use your special "eyesight", interrogate suspects, and more. So far, this is what you'd expect.
Some clues become more important and they show up in your "brain" where you can pair it up with another clue (if it's the correct one) to deduce something. Once you have enough of those, you can reach a conclusion. ALSO, once you've reached a conclusion you can decide how to act on it (usually it's either call the cops or call Mycroft - i think...).
What's really wild is that in the brain-connecting clues interface, you can reach lots of different conclusions! (I think it's 4 per case, at least it has been that so far and I've completed two cases). OH! And, as far as I can tell, the you can get it wrong! And, you just move on...the game calls some of them moral choices - which I'm confused by. But the idea that you could arrive at an incorrect conclusion and the game just moves on to the next case is pretty wild. So far, I've gotten both right (because there's abutton you can press that even warns you - like "spoiler alert" and it shows my result in green - which I assume is that I got it right).
Anyways, that's super cool!
Oh, and the game haslots of little mini-games that you play once, and they're part of the story (e.g. taking sherlock's pulse, or arm-wrestling with a sailor)..
The 2nd case is pretty neat - it takes place in the UK, there's a missing train...and there are rich Chilean (and Mexican) businessmen involved! Whoah.
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Fights in Tight Spaces (PC) by jp (Apr 21st, 2024 at 00:19:38) |
This one's a bit weird and I'll confess I didn't play it that much (just played one mission - which is like 1/5 of a full run?). It looks like it wants to be SuperHot, but it isn't - that's ok. But, it has a "play the movie" of what you just did in a level that you would think would play fast and smooth and super action-y. But now, it's slow and it even pauses between card plays...so it looks rather boring, which is a real shame.
As for the game, there's interesting stuff going on, but I haven't fully understood everything:
a. There's a typical energy system for casting, but a secondary system (combo) that lets you play some cards with a combo cost. If you move in your turn you lose combo so it's sometimes tricky to get everything to pull off.
b. While playing I was disappointed (because it seemed unfair) that there are objectives (bonus ones) in each level - and I wasn't getting any because I didn't know what they were! Apparently they're actually shown on screen, but in a place I did not see or notice.
c. The game seemed a bit slow - I was just moving and getting out of the way as I waited to draw into a good hand of cards. This cuts the momentum for sure and also made it hard/impossible to accidentally hit the secret (not really secret) objectives. So, I'm curious to go back and try again with awareness of the objectives. They should help a lot - in that I'm more likely to try to "solve the puzzle" of each turn and hopefully get the bonus objectives.
d. It's strange that you have to pay to heal, but I thought it was neat that you can upgrade several cards (if you have the money) and that some cards are cheap to upgrade - there's different pricing for them!
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Hadean Tactics (PC) by jp (Apr 21st, 2024 at 00:11:34) |
Ok, I've now cleared the game (not unlocked everything, of course) and it really is quite fun and interesting. The 3rd character (which I was waiting on to try out because I wanted to clear the game with the 2nd one) is pretty neat as well though as I write this all I can really remember is that it has an orb mechanic similar to one of the characters in Slay the Spire.
The harder ending is basically another 3 levels, but they get shorter! The last one, if I remember correctly, is just the boss. I don't remember what deck I was running, but it was pretty good - in the sense that I had picked up some good combos..traps and all.
I'm going to stop playing, for now, mostly because the list of games too look at keeps on growing - one a week - because of the design seminar I'm teaching.
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Before Your Eyes (PC) by dkirschner (Apr 14th, 2024 at 13:51:13) |
I've been looking forward to playing this, especially after playing One Hand Clapping, which had a singing mechanic. That game activates your mic and you use your voice, raising and lowering pitch, to interact with the game. Before Your Eyes was similar in that the game activates your webcam and uses your eye blinks as input. Before Your Eyes works WAY better than One Hand Clapping, and it's the better game all around. I figure that detecting blinks (yes/no) is easier than detecting notes along the range of human vocal pitch, so kudos to One Hand Clapping for trying.
Blinking in Before Your Eyes doesn't do anything unless you do it over a prompt (mouse over the prompt, then blink to interact) or unless you do it when the metronome icon is visible, which progresses the story to the next scene. The rules are simple, and it became a game in and of itself for me to blink strategically. I imagined that at the end of A Clockwork Orange, Alex's eyes are forced open so that he could successfully complete this game. At times, I felt like holding my eyes open with my fingers. This is because your eyes will get tired/dry/itchy while playing and you will screw up and blink when you don't mean to, skipping dialogue or ending a scene early. That's frustrating enough. Make sure you do the blink calibration, but I think that no matter how well you do it, it will still occasionally register some non-blinks as blinks. This really didn't happen much for me; through calibration, I think I turned the sensitivity way down, and I wonder what effect wearing glasses had. But like I said, it works surprisingly well.
So, the game itself is narrative-heavy. It's an obvious play on the idea that a life can pass in the "blink of an eye." You're picked up by a ferryman of souls who asks you to tell the story of your life. Back in time you go to remember it: your childhood, your parents, your career, etc., blinking your way through each scene. I won't spoil the story, but there is a twist that I absolutely did not see coming (though I should have paid more attention to the mysterious dark scenes) that changes the narrative and the tone of the game. This is one you can spend time reflecting on.
Aesthetically, it's got a simple visual presentation, sort of painterly, with some really nice piano music. The voice acting is good, with the exception of the girl-next-door (who sounds the same at 10 as she does at 40). For some reason, they also used the same voice actor for your dad and her dad, which made the one scene with her dad calling her very confusing ("Why is my dad at her house?!"). But I liked the dad and mom's performances. I was wondering through the whole game if your character was mute and/or on the spectrum because he doesn't talk--only through a typewriter later in the game--and otherwise expresses himself through his prodigious musical and artistic talents. But I think he's just a silent main character, not actually mute.
Anyway, the game won a BAFTA for a reason. It didn't blow my mind, but it's a neat experience that's worth having. It's short too, doesn't waste your time. I'm considering incorporating it into a class.
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Stray (PC) by dkirschner (Apr 13th, 2024 at 12:00:39) |
Patrick and I have been playing this together this semester, and finished it a couple weeks ago. We were talking after beating it about despite how simple and straightforward of a game this is, it manages to be something new. Playing as a cat (and being able to do cat things like curl up and sleep, scratch things, knock objects off tables, etc., so cuuuute) was novel, and the setting and story were interesting. But really, playing as a cat. I smiled a whole lot throughout the game. The lil companion robot was cute too.
On the other hand, I was often tired and bored while playing, and literally fell asleep during several sessions. Patrick would be making dinner or something in the kitchen, and I'd snap awake, cat walking into a wall, and I'd pretend I had not fallen asleep, and that I was just watching the cat walk into the wall and thinking. Like how my dad always used to claim he was "resting his eyes" when he'd fall asleep on the couch.
I would not call the game exciting. It was a lot of wandering around the city and talking to robot NPCs, fetching things for them. The city is a really good-looking dystopia, and the robots are quirky, but I wish they had more dialogue. You don't get a sense that many of them have personalities besides whatever one-note thing they do. I mean, the lack of dialogue makes sense, and it's not really "dialogue" since the cat can't talk. The fact that you are a cat adds a whole layer of silly to the game. Like, why has this lil robot befriended a cat? Why are all these robots putting all their faith in a cat to save them? Cats don't understand what we're saying to them, and cats do whatever they want! Playing as a cat in a game where you're doing fetch quests (fetching is dog stuff!) and doing things to help people is very un-cat-like.
But, you know what? The ability to play as a cat and do cat things trumps how little sense it makes, and I would play as a cat in this dystopia again. Idea for next time: more cats. And what do you think? Were there cats at the end?! Optimistically, I think so.
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GameLog hopes to be a site where gamers such as yourself keep track of the games that
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if you got bored, frustrated,etc.) You can also attach short comments to each of your games or even maintain a diary (with more detailed entries)
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2157 registered gamers and 3105 games. 7607 GameLogs with 13096 journal entries. 5074 games are currently being played.
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Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction (PC) by bt455 |
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most recent entry: Thursday 28 February, 2013
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Diablo II, with an expansion pack named Lord of Destruction is an action role-playing hack and slash video game developed by Blizzard. The game was first released on 2000, and one year later, the expansion pack LoD came out with a lot of new features and improvements, making it one of the best games to play ever.
=Storyline= (as I played the game a long time ago, I might not be able to point out every single details or telling the proper story, but I will try to describe it).
The game has a dark, horror theme with violent actions (including blood). At the beginning, the game's story is divided into 4 Acts with 4 different locations. Act I you began in Rogue Encampment, a camp near the forest of Tristram. Act II is the desert of Lut Gholein, Act III is the fallen kingdom Kurast, Act IV is Hell. After the expansion, the game is added one more act located on Mount Arreat in the northern Barbarian Highlands. In each act, you have a set of quests that you need to do as the story proceed. There are some quests that are optional, however, you always have to complete the last quest, which is killing the Boss of that Act, in order to proceed to the next Act. The game is very linear, as you play the game, the things you do are pretty much predetermined, however, there are still some random generated dungeons or areas where you can spend time discovering and killing everything inside, just for fun, or for the sake of looting and leveling. The game has 3 difficulties that is unlocked after you finish the previous one (Normal, Nightmare, Hell).
=Characters=
The game initially has 5 different characters, with different skill set and equipment. These include Amazon, Paladin, Barbarian, Necromancer and Sorceress. Later, they added 2 more characters, Assassin and Druid, making the game even more fun to play. As mentioned above, the character that you choose has an unique skill set and their stat attributes that can be increased when leveling up (you get 1 skill point and 5 attribute points to spend each time you level up). Based on your play style, and your strategy, you can decide to build your characters in different way and find different skill combos to fight. However, if you play long enough and get to high level with tough enemies, you will know that there are only some ways you can build one character, because not all skill are that great versus enemies. Your stats, besides providing more strength, speed and health or mana in combat, can be used to meet the requirement to equip some armors or weapons, so be careful and build it accordingly. Last but not least, besides your main character, you can hire a follower to support you during the game, and you can also equip items for him/her.
=Items=
It is undeniable that items play a very important role in the game. Each character has a number of slots that can be filled with armors, weapons and accessories. Items that you equip can aid your character in various way: increase attack, defense, speed, attribute points, skill points and special abilities. As you proceed to higher difficulty, the enemies are stronger but also have higher chance to drop rare items. Item names have different colors indicated the rareness of it, and of course the rarer it is the stronger it is likely to be. First you start with mainly white item, which is item with no bonus stat. Then, the blue items with only a few lines of bonus. The rare items (yellow) will bonus even more (up to 6 lines). Set items (green) can be specialized for certain character (for example, set items for Paladin cannot be equipped on Amazon) and if you have the whole set, then they can bonus you with special stats and abilities that are unlocked when you equip the whole set. Legendary items (dark yellow), are of course the rarest and most powerful items in the game, with a strong stats and a lot of bonus lines. However, sometimes having the whole item set makes you stronger that having only legendary items.
=Gameplay=
As mentioned above, the game is action hack and slash type of game, so pretty much what you do in the game is smash the mouse and skill buttons. Mainly, you can choose 2 skills on the two slot that can be triggered with your mouse. Does that mean you can only use 2 skills at one time? Well not exactly, since you can switch very fast between skills by setting up the hotkey. So that means when using only left mouse and right mouse to use your skill, you can use your hotkey to switch between different skills very fast, making it pretty easy to use as many skills as you want. During combat, if sometimes you are hurt pretty bad, you can use potion to regenerate your health and mana. The potions are placed in your belt, so the type of belt you use allow you to equip a certain number of potions. However, you can always open the inventory and right click the potion to heal, it works just fine, but only less convenient.
After killing single enemy on the map, what do you do? You loot. As simple as that, but looting is the most fun and enjoyable part of the game. You pick up items on the ground, see which item is strong to equip, and which item is valuable to sell in shop. Some items are not yet identified (which means you cannot read the "value" of that item yet), and you have to use the red scroll to "read" it. The game makes you only be able to carry a limit amount of items, so you have to go back and sell it, or just drop it on the way.
=Enemies=
In each Acts, there are certain types of enemies, mini bosses and one final boss. The enemies initially are weak, and not aggressive. They only hit you if you attack them first, which is nice. And then they become tougher and tougher, with special abilities (deal lightning when being hit, freeze you when attacking, or explode when they die), but you can read the tiny description that is located below their name and health, to know what ability they have, in order to have proper strategy against them. Besides the Mini Bosses and Final Bosses that always appear in some certain area, there are elite packs and mobs that can be very powerful that are randomly generated. Killing these enemies can drop a lot of rare items, so finding and killing them is very fun.
=Overall=
This is the first game that I have ever played on my very first computer (I did not own any consoles until college, so my life sucks) and it is indeed one of the best games ever. With fast paced actions, easy control and the glory of looting makes it still enjoyable after you clear the map hundreds of time. It is too good that it makes Diablo 3 quite failed the expectation that huge fans like me had hoped for.
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